Carol,

The simple solution to the skulking issue is to let troll be both. He can use one of his defficient personalities as VP and another as the skulker, leaving servcerl more for things like eating, breathing and his mudcat posts. I, on the other hand, must decline as President. My Daddy raised me with better sense and more ethics than to run for office. Being offered the position of God-Emperor is another matter. Just don't tell troll. He thinks he already is.

Uncle Jaque,

I'll contend that there isn't substantial difference. Different would be proposing that we strictly limit government (Federal and Local) only to the specific areas delineated in the Constitution and reserve all other rights to the individuals. The current interpretation seems to be that the Government "gives" us rights with the implication that they are theirs to give. The original theory was that all sorts of rights were inalienable and the Bill of Rights et ale, listed some of them. Operating from that theory would greatly limit the scope and abuses of government. Neither Bush nor Gore seem willing to trust the people to that extent.

Mr Gore has demonstrated a definite lack of character. Still he did win a majority of the popular vote so maybe he feels entitled to drag this through the courts (I don't but oh well). My prejudice against Mr. Bush is based on my strong sense that he's 100% behind the Bill of Rights, he'd just prefer you have a net worth of 5 million plus before you're allowed to exercise any of them. He seems to have his fathers sense of patrician elitism without a counterbalancing sense of noblesse oblige.

Of course there's some difference, though I personally find that what both brought to the election was that they both met the citizenship and age requirements to hold office. (Plus the ability to raise many hundreds of millions of dollars, of course)

troll,

I work very, very hard at being insufferable. Glad to know I succeeded. Yes, I work for a local government. And have worked for myself, several school systems, a fortune 100 company, a private hospital, a public hospital and a number of odd jobs in between. It isn't government that's the joke. Or at least not the biggest one. The sad thing about Dilbert is how true much of it is.

ebbie,

You see what I mean. Not only can't he help himself, he lacks the basic introspective skills to even recognize his random, all to often incoherent and certainly illogical ramblings as just that. As a believer in the strict interpretation of the Constitution I must defend troll's right to ramble, mumble, dissemble and froth at the mouth. But its an effort.

Regards and Happy Holidays

John